1To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, [ca. 10] March 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I beg Leave to break in on a few Minutes of your Time, which I am sensible ought not to be unnecessarily interrupted. At Length Gilliam &c. have made such Paces towards the final Adjustments of Skelton’s Accounts that I think the Business may now be done, of which I confess I formerly despaired. They have agreed to enter into Bond to adhere to what the Commissioners on either Part shall...
2[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 24 March 1784] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Mount Vernon, 24 Mch. 1784 . Noted in SJL as received 26 Mch. 1784. Not found.]
3[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 9 April 1784] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Richmond, 9 Apr. 1784 . Noted in SJL as received Apr. 16 1784. Not found.]
4[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 16 April 1784] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Richmond, 16 Apr. 1784. Noted in SJL as received 23 Apr. 1784. Not found.]
5[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 23 April 1784] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Richmond, 23 Apr. 1784. Noted in SJL as received 30 Apr. 1784. Letter not found, but its subject was no doubt the possibility that TJ would be appointed as minister. TJ was troubled to learn that that possibility was being rumored in Virginia, and, on the same day that he received Short’s letter, he replied expressing his embarrassment; TJ to Short, 30 Apr. 1784 . Short explained that a...
6To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 8 May 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
Thursdays Post brought me your friendly favor of April 30th. The Subject had been hinted to me the Week before by a Friend in Annapolis . He told me he should bring on the Question, that he was anxious about it on Account of its Moment to the Southern Interest, which he was convinced could be by no Body so well consulted for as by you. He added as his Success in this Scheme was yet doubtful,...
7To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 May 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
The Arrival of the Post on Thursday brought me yours of the 7th. Mr. Adams of this City , being to depart that Evening for Philadelphia by Water, I wrote to you by him. And now I write you more fully by the Post. With Respect to myself I can only say my Determination is, what it has long been, to accompany you in any Capacity whatsoever. I have for some Time been endeavouring so to have...
8To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 1[5] May 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
This is the third Letter I have written to you since the Reciept of yours of 7th. of May by last Thursdays Post. My second Letter by the Post of Yesterday will inform you fully of my Plans and Reasons for them. I only write this to prevent all Inconveniences from any Miscarriage of my former Letters. Jame sets out to Albemarle this Morning. My Intention was, as it was impossible for me to set...
9To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 22 May 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been so much occupied for some Time in getting ready for the Voyage that I have only Time to inclose you a Letter f[rom] Mr. Madison which will give you all the important Information of this Place. No Mail arrived here from the Northward last Thursday—So that I am still undetermined whether you will sail on the 25th. as at first supposed. I have seen from the Beginning it would be...
10To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 28 June 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
It is now 10 o’Clock at Night and yet I cannot forbear writing a short Letter to go by Express to-morrow Morning. Yesterday Monro arrived here and informed me you would have remained in Boston until the 20th. of this Month. Had I known it before I should have overtaken you there. Finding I could not reach Philadelphia by the 25h. of May, I determined with myself it would be better to do some...
11To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 28 July 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
I am sure you will be surprized to recieve a Letter from me in Richmond at this late Date. Notwithstanding I have been expecting every Week to be my last here for some Time; the Disappointment of recieving Supplies from a Chanel which I had thought could not fail, has imposed on me the Mortification of waiting till this Period. As you know how much I wish to be with you you will know what I...
12To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 7 August 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
My last will have informed you of my Arrival at Boulogne . I was detained the next Day at Calais because no Packet sailed in the Evening. I by Accident heard of Comte Rochambeau being there and waited on him. He enquired in a most particular Manner after you, desired me to tell you what Pleasure he had recieved in reading your Notes, and related to a very large Company with general Marks of...
13To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, with Enclosure, 23 August 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
After waiting on Mr. Dumas we went two Days ago by Appointment to the Baron de Thulemeiers. A simple Matter of Etiquette as you will see prevented the Business on which we were, from being completed. On my producing the two Originals of the Treaty and explaining the Intention of them, the Baron de Thulemeier told us he was instructed only to receive the Copy which should be sent and to...
14To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, with Enclosure, 23 August 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed Papers consisting of a Letter I have the Honor to write you, of a Copy of one the Baron de Thulemeier has sent me, and of a List of Faults which he observes in the Copy of the Treaty I have been charged with, will fully explain the Situation of this Business. Being obliged to postpone doing any Thing farther in this Matter for eight Days at least, I shall make Use of that Interval...
15To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 28 August 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you last from the Hague. Since that I have passed through Leyden and Haarlem on my Way to this Place which I find as busy and commercial as I think it can be. And yet I am told it has declined and is declining. This gives me Concern because I find several attributing it to an Intercourse with America and to the Independence of the latter. How true this may be in Fact I cannot say, yet...
16To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 9 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
On my Return from Amsterdam on Saturday last I met with a Letter here which arrived the same Day from Mr. Adams. The Baron de Thulemeier had also received his Answer from Berlin. His letter and that from Mr. Adams removed all the Difficulties except that of the Errata. As I had not inclosed a List of them at first to Mr. Adams he could say nothing on that Subject to me. Notwithstanding the...
17To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 11 September 1785 (Jefferson Papers)
You will be surprized by my Letter written on Friday Evening which mentioned that yours had not arrived. I waited until as late in the Evening as I could on Account of the Departure of the Post before I wrote. Some Time after that Mr. Dumas called to let me know he had just received the Letter which he presented me. I was exceedingly happy to find that it allowed us to pursue the Measures...
18To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, [19? March 1786] (Jefferson Papers)
Colo. Humphries has informed me that a French Gentleman who sets out for London to-day presents a favorable Opportunity of conveying your Letters to you. The Marquis de la Fayette informed him of this Circumstance and desired that the Letters should be sent to him this Morning, to be by him committed to the Care of this Gentleman. You will therefore Sir recieve under the Cover of Colo....
19To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 26 March 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
Since writing you I have received two Letters from Messrs. Desbordes of Brest. The first informed me that the Letter inclosed them was not sufficient, as I had apprehended, for the Liberation of the American Prisoners. They desired me to obtain without Delay something more absolute. I immediately wrote to Mr. Reyneval communicating this Circumstance, and two or three Days after received the...
20To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 2 April 1786 (Jefferson Papers)
My last Letter was by the Post eight Days ago. Since that a Letter has come to your Address from Monsr. de Vergennes ; and as I have not yet received any Thing like an Answer from Monsieur de Reyneval, I am induced to suppose this Letter may be partly on that Subject ; Its being somewhat thicker than a common Letter would lead to suppose it contained other Matters also. I am very impatient to...
21To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 12 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
This letter with the others inclosed would have been sent two days sooner but for a mistake in the post-days of Aix. I waited until saturday without writing because I wished to be able to give you some information of your map; and from saturday until to-morrow the post does not set out for Aix.—The engraver kept his word and went through all your corrections in the course of the last week....
22To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter the day before yesterday I mentioned to you the progress I had made with the engraver. Yesterday his part of the work was entirely completed. I have employed him to have 250 copies taken for you, not knowing any better mode of having it done as you left no directions with me respecting it. He enquired of me yesterday if I was charged with the payment of these matters &c. I have...
23To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 22 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the 15th. from Lyons arrived here on sunday last, and gave great pleasure to all your friends, to me a double portion because it shewed you were pleased with your journey and because it furnished me details on the country you passed through of which I was very desirous to be informed. I hope you will be so good as to continue them. Should I ever be able to make the same trip, they...
24To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 26 March 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
By my calculation I hoped to recieve your letter from Aix yesterday. Although it has not arrived I shall go into the country to-day, not foreseeing that the delay of one day in recieving it can be attended with any bad consequences. It will come to me at St. Germains in four and twenty hours and perhaps less after its arrival here’ if that should be before my return. I shall be four or five...
25To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 4 April 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned from the country the day before yesterday, and the evening of the same day brought here yours of the 27th. ulto. I need not tell you how much pleasure it gave me to see that you were in the midst of constant vivifying sunshine. Although I have little faith in the waters of Aix, I have a great deal in its climate. But provided you receive the benefit you wished for, I will not...
26To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 6 April 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
At length Longchamp is at an end. The company have just left me and I retire from the bustle of the procession to the calmer pleasure of writing to you. My apprehensions as to convenances between some of the ladies were without ground. Mde. de Corny and the Marchioness de Chambaraud were previously acquainted. At least they had a great deal of conversation and talked of having met at some...
27To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 24 April 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
Although my two last letters are still at Aix, and although this will arrive there before you I cannot forbear longer the pleasure of writing to you. I will begin by acknowleging the reciept of your two last, one from Toulon and the other from Nice. In consequence of the first I have been to-day to Versailles to see M. de Montmorin, it being the first Versailles-day since its arrival, and I...
28To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 8 May 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
My last was of the 24th. and 25th. of April. Yours was from Nice the 12th. Agreeably to your calculation at that time I may now daily expect to hear of your return on this side of the Alps, and I imagine you will certainly be at Aix as soon as this letter. It is the last I shall write you Sir, to that place, unless I find that you will be longer there than I had supposed. Crevecoeur has gone...
29To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 May 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I went into the country on wednesday last, the day of Colo. Smith’s departure from this place, and returned here yesterday evening. The Porter who has never failed forwarding me my letters with the greatest punctuality except in this instance, omitted it entirely, so that on my arrival yesterday I recieved in the same instant your three letters of May 1. 4. and 5. The reason of this neglect I...
30To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 21 May 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
A letter I recieved yesterday from Mr. Limosin shews that your letter would have been much too late for the packet had it been forwarded on immediately on its arrival. The Packet sailed from the road of Havre at 5. o’clock in the morning of the 10th. Your letter arrived at Paris the evening of the same day.—Mr. Limosin tells me there is only an English ship at Havre, to sail soon for...
31To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 29 May 1787 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday evening your favor of the 21st. from the canal of Languedoc and in consequence of the route which you trace I send this to L’Orient to the care of the American Agent there. I percieve by your letter that mine of the 8th. must necessarily have missed you at Aix. I hope that of the 14th. sent to the care of Mr. Bondfield at Bordeaux, and that of the 21st. sent to Nantes post...
32To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 6 [March] 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
The first post day for the Hague, since your departure, will be to morrow. This letter will then set out and carry agreeable news of the health of your daughter. She has continued mending uniformly since the favorable turn of her disorder of which you were a witness, and this morning when I was at the Convent I learned that nothing remained of the indisposition except a necessary weakness....
33To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 9 March 178[8] (Jefferson Papers)
My letter by friday’s post has not yet reached you and still I despatch this that there may be as little interval as possible between the times of your hearing from your family in the convent. I have sent regularly to enquire about the health of Miss Polly and have as regularly received for answer that she was better. At present they are gone to enquire and to ask Miss Jefferson for the letter...
34To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 March 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I am now in daily expectation of the pleasure of receiving a letter from you and hope it will bring us an account of your safe arrival at the Hague and of your having found there Mr. Adams.—You recollect without doubt the extract in the Mercure , from Mazzei’s book, where it was said, ‘ qu’ il y a vingt dieux, ou qu’il n’y en a qu’un &c. ’ In consequence of it Pankcoucke is decreté...
35To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 17 March 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I cannot let the post go off without sending you some intelligence of your little family at the convent. Few words will convey it as there is only to say that they are all perfectly well. This is the answer which I get from the convent when I send there. It shews that Miss Polly whom you left sick is at present classed with those whom you left well. The Packet has not yet arrived. It is the...
36To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 6 April 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of March 29. arrived here yesterday. I see that you have received all the letters I have written. I have not been so fortunate. Your first (from Leyden) never reached me. Yours from Amsterdam of the 13th was the first I received. I have heard no complaints from the convent and consequently suppose your daughters are perfectly well. I know they were so some days ago. Letters by the...
37[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 8 April 1788] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Paris, 8 Apr. 1788 . Recorded in SJL Index. Not found.]
38[To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 24 April 1788] (Jefferson Papers)
[ Paris, 24 Apr. 1788 . Recorded in SJL Index. Not found.]
39To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 24 September 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I came here yesterday evening from Villefranche where I parted with my travelling companions. It is now early in the morning and M. de L’Aye being engaged in writing by the post of to day, I have only as yet seen the inside of the Chateau. With it as well as my reception both by the master and mistress I am perfectly content. I hope I shall continue to be as well pleased with what is to follow...
40To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 2 October 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I have this moment arrived here, and the first thing I do is to announce it to you. I left this morning the Chateau de Laye and came by water diligence to this place. It is my first navigation in France and I am much pleased with it. We were from 10. o’clock to five en route of which one hour was spent in dining, the rest in passing through such a variety of pleasing and rich prospect as...
41To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 11 October 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
Geneva, 11 Oct. 1788. Acknowledges TJ’s letters of 20 and 24 Sep.; has not been able to use the letter to Tronchin because of the shortness of his stay in Geneva; would write more fully except that he has at this moment found an opportunity of crossing the Alps and must set off in half an hour; does not know whether he will go from Milan to Venice or to Florence. “The Voiturier is at my back...
42To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 18 October 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you in a hurry from Geneva because I was forced to leave that place at a very short warning occasioned 1. by having been tricked by one voiturier and 2. by the necessity of taking another which then presented himself on the condition of my setting off in company with a carriage then getting ready. Both of these carriages were of two wheels each and two places. I was obliged to take one...
43To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 28 October 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
My last was from Turin, and being now able to ascertain my route with more precision, finding it will be doubtful whether your letter would overtake me on the road, I am to beg you to do me the favor to write to me poste restante à Rome. I came here on wednesday the 22d. and found Rutledge. Shippen had gone 24. hours before my arrival, for Genoa, in order to return to England by the way of...
44To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 19 November 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
In my letter from Milan I begged you to write to me poste restante at Rome. I was soon after stopped in my route by the influenza, and not knowing of how long duration would be the delay, I was induced by this consideration and by my desire to hear from you as soon as possible, to beg Mrs. Paradise to desire you in a letter she was writing to you to send me your letters poste restante to...
45To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 29 November 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
We left Bergamo Mr. Rutledge and myself, on Sunday the 23d. in the morning and after an agreeable journey though with much bad weather and snow arrived here yesterday evening. The road along which we have passed is one of the most interesting in Italy. In agriculture it is rich. The productions are grass, Indian corn, wheat, vines, mulberry trees and in one small part olive trees. The water is...
46To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 23 December 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
I arrived here yesterday and this days post has brought me your letter of the 8th. That sent to Milan agreeably to my request has not yet come to hand. The uncertainty of the time I should be obliged to remain in the neighbourhood of Milan added to my great anxiety to hear from you made me desire you to address your letters there. I still hope it will be forwarded to me though its long...
47To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 31 December 1788 (Jefferson Papers)
We are in hourly expectation of the post from Paris. It should have arrived two days ago. They say the snow on the Appennines is probably the cause of its detention. Nobody can desire its arrival more than I do because I hope by it to hear from you. In my last of the 23d. I acknowleged the receipt here of yours of Dec. 8. and mentioned the probable loss of that directed to me at Milan.—Since...
48To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 14 January 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the 23d. and 30th. of December. Since that time I have been here constantly employed in the routine to which travellers are submitted, of running up and down Rome visiting curiosities ancient and modern. So much has been said on these by writers who have travelled as well as those who have not, that no person at this day can hope to give new information respecting them. My...
49To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 11 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I returned the day before yesterday from Naples. Your letter of the 22d. of Jany. arrived here the same day. I should have been mortified to have learned any circumstance which must give you pain, but I feel an anxiety to which I am not accustomed in learning the severe indisposition of your family. I know well how much you must have suffered on the occasion, and not only the duties of...
50To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 17 February 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
My last was of the 11th. In it I mentioned to you how anxious I was to hear from you the re-establishment of the sick part of your family. I still hope that you will be so good as to let me hear from you at Florence, and that I shall learn that the fine weather which has now returned at Paris, has brought with it health to those whom the rude season deprived of it. To the middle of March I...